


Stardust

by RemainingQuestions



Series: Tenacious Tripartite [3]
Category: Hermitcraft RPF
Genre: Angst, Character Study, Depression, Dissociation, Gen, Hurt No Comfort, Other, Songfic, Toxic Relationships, ignoring boundaries, none of them are okay, unhealthy relationship dynamics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-01
Updated: 2020-12-01
Packaged: 2021-03-10 05:21:31
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,406
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27818929
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RemainingQuestions/pseuds/RemainingQuestions
Summary: A study of the relationship between anger and apathy.Or; Aph and Vee are close. In a way, they always were closer than the distant Void. But close does not mean happy.Inspired by the song Boats & Birds by Gregory the Hawk
Series: Tenacious Tripartite [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1689388
Comments: 9
Kudos: 20





	Stardust

**Author's Note:**

> I said that I had a really polished idea for this universe, and i said that if I went into that it would get very intense.   
> The time has come for me to get into, starting with this one shot exploring the relationship between Aph and Vee.   
> It's not good fam, it's not good. 
> 
> Heed the tags, there is no comfort here, there is no happy ending in this fic. eventually there will be, but not here.

_ If you’ll be my star, I’ll be your sky. I live to let you shine. _

Aph had carved out a quiet space for himself. A gentle space, a lonely space. 

It was his. 

Vee carved out space for himself wherever he went. Large spaces, he demanded, harsh spaces. Only temporarily there. 

Vee carved a space for himself when he was with Aph, too. Aph couldn’t blame him, couldn’t blame Vee for something he couldn’t control. Aph wouldn’t blame him, fire and brimstone, passion and flames, for having a touch that burnt. 

The world was always ice when he left again, inevitably left Aph alone again. 

He didn’t knock, didn’t ask to enter. The door slammed open and Aph knew it was Vee. Only one other being knew how to get here and he never came. 

The bee nuzzled closer to Aph’s face, fuzz soft. “Evil?” His voice was hoarse. Dry like untouched tinder. 

“Gah!” His other part shouted, flinging his arms out. “He tricked me! Again!”

Issues with Void again. Aph wondered if Evil would even consider being here if it wasn’t issues with Void, again. For a second Aph wondered how long Evil would ramble until he noticed his silence. 

“Why couldn’t he just… fall into my trap! Just once!” He sat down on the couch, a precarious stack of books falling down, spilling pressed flowers. 

He shrugged with one shoulder, the other still occupied by the bee. The flowers had looked pretty when he put them there, but they lost all their luster, dead and squashed. “Did you monologue again.” It wasn’t a question, it didn’t need to be. They had this conversation so many times that Aph knew the answer. Evil would answer regardless. 

Red gloves picked up a blue flower, delicate structure warped in the tight grip. “Well I had to check that everything is right!” A petal was torn off. “He was being a mean sneak, hiding in the shadows.” Another petal flutters to the floor. 

There’s no need to voice his question, if Evil had even looked for Void. If Void had used the pull of the void to step that little bit more quietly. Of course he hadn’t. Of course Void had. “Did he ban you again?” 

“Rude meanie that he is, of course he then went and  _ banned _ me!” 

It was familiar, this anger. This hurt. Sometimes Aph wished it wasn’t. But then Evil and Void would just live happily ever after with those hermits of Void. Aph was selfish. He would take an angry, hurting, Evil over no Evil at all. 

The drops of lava that had flung off Evil sank in the spaces where they landed, harshly carving a space for themselves until they were cooled into bits of gravel. 

Evil rambled and gestured, throwing his hands around.

Apathetic sat still, eventually even the bee got bored and went back to her hive. 

No music and no dancing, but it was still achingly familiar. 

The sun had sank and Evil was already talking about his next plan. It wouldn’t work anymore than the past one. Aph wondered if Evil realised that, too. 

He yawned halfway through a sentence and Aph knew the bridge of the song, too. 

Large eyes Aph couldn’t say no to, would never be able to say no to, and Evil was heading off to the only bed in the little hut Aph called home. 

Aph knew what would happen if he followed. Knew about the press of lips against lips, the push of fingers on hips, the pull of Evil’s heat, familiar and comfortable. Knew the shades of bruises on Evil’s hips, the burns on his shoulders. 

He looked at the first aid kit neatly tucked into a corner. Evil wouldn’t notice the burns at first, would be gone long enough for even lingering redness to have faded. He looked to the petals on the ground. He had always wondered if the normally energising flower could be made stronger. 

The mix of honey and flower was sweet and stuck to the back of his throat. 

He stayed up the night, Void’s ban on Evil ready to be removed when the morning shone. 

_ But you can skyrocket away from me, and never come back if you find another galaxy. _

The next time Vee came around he was crying. Heavy tears, sobs pulled deep from his chest. 

Aph opened his arms, his house, as always. 

Vee was hot in his arms and Aph felt the emotions wash over him, through him. He held Vee even as his stomach churned at their intensity. 

Problems with Void again. 

Problems with Void, always. Part of him wondered if it would solve anything if he said he couldn’t lift the ban, this time. If he could have Vee just a little longer. If Vee would just stop trying to get Void to pay attention to him. 

Void didn’t care, Aph had soon realised after they split. He had been dubbed the uncaring one, but Void had left right away - chasing after those players they had first seen. 

So Void did care. Just not about them. 

So Aph holds Vee as he weeps over a man not caring. Holds him and makes sure he has no idea the emotions are strong enough to make him sick. 

Aph lies. It breaks Vee’s heart. He doesn’t question it. He stays. Aph has what he wanted. So why does it still hurt?

Aph doesn’t sleep.

Vee doesn’t ask.

Vee eats the food Aph forgets about.

He wanted this, so why does it still hurt?

“Want to uh,” he wanted this, so why does it hurt? “Want to do some flower shit?” 

Vee looks at him like he hung the stars and the moon and it  _ hurts _ . “Yes, please?” 

“So like, all these flowers have meaning yeah?” Books and books were written on the meaning of them. Aph had a lot of time, not sleeping, that he spent reading. “And putting them in specific combinations and arrangements just makes it clearer.”

Vee’s eyes shine under the attention. It hurts. 

A shrug displaces a bee that had settled on his shoulder. “Just means you can say a lot of shit without having to say a single word.”

  
  
  
  


_ If you’ll be my boat, I’ll be your sea. I live to make you free. _

He should have expected it. 

The rose torn into his cheek and the wither effect sunk into his blood. 

“How long?” 

He hadn’t been asleep, hadn’t been awake either. There was a spot to the left and slightly above of a sunflower that was blazed into his retina. 

“How long did you have the command queued up? How long have you  _ lied _ , Apathetic?”

Vee’s anger is deserved. The withering grows from the cut in his cheek up to his eye, down his neck. The pain will pass. The sunflower moves ever so slightly in the wind and Aph’s eyes remain stationary. 

“You- you won’t even  _ look _ at me?” There’s anger in his voice. It’s a familiar emotion, from Vee. “You  _ kept me _ and now you won’t even  _ look at me? _ ” 

He turns his head. Slowly, degree by degree. His eyes land on Vee’s pecs until he drags his pupils upwards. He drags his eyelids down and open again. The sunflower is still blazed on top of Vee’s furious face. 

“I know you and Void are  _ oh so smart _ but how dumb do you think I really am?” There’s tears in Vee’s eyes. Aph aches to move his arm, to wipe them off. 

Aph blinks. 

Vee swallows, tears spilling down. “Am I just, just a pet to you?” 

The wither strikes deeper into Aph’s veins. Someone needs to rub away Vee’s tears, the poor thing is crying again. Vee always had so many emotions. 

There’s words stuck in Vee’s throat. He always swallows just so when there’s words stuck in his throat. “Fuck you, ‘Thetic.  _ Fuck you. _ ” 

And he was alone again. 

The wood of the ceiling burnt into his eyes. 

Later, he would see the exposed command blocks that kept this patch of dirt from falling into the void, kept the bees from being hurt by anything. The command blocks he used to mess with the code. To unban Evil. 

The planks that usually covered them still laid beside them. 

_ But you can set sail to the west if you want to, and past the horizon, ‘til I can’t even see you _ .

  
  
  
  
  
  
  



End file.
